Malegaon blast: changing horses in the mid stream

In the bomb blast at Bhiku chowk on September 29 2008 more than five people died including a ten-year-old girl, Farheen. The people around were very much angered by the inaction of the police and resorted to protesting and pelting the police as a result the police opened fire and a man lost his life and some others received bullet injury. In all some hundred people were injured.

The cause of the anger of the people is central to the whole drama that turned it into a grim Greek tragedy. The residents and shopkeepers of the chowk had discovered an abandoned motor bike and reported the matter to the police at the police chowki located cheek by jowl from the blast site. The cops dilly-dallied and told the people that the handle was locked albeit they tried to move and shake the bike. But they left it there. It was the tragic flaw. That was early evening of Monday. After sunset crowd swelled around for shopping and refreshment. At 9.30 the special prayers of the recital of the holy book that had attracted huge crowd was over. The worshippers as usual were moving to the chowk. That was when the bomb was set to go off. It went off with a big bang and the nearby hotel stove caught fire, as the balls from the improvised explosive device must have pierced the gas cylinder.

The tragic realization that the police did not seriously take their concern for the abandoned vehicle produced a chemistry of change as their blood boiled at the preventable terrific murder and mayhem. This much is not to say that the people are justified to take the law in their hand. There were sane people among the crowd. Faheem Siddiqui, the local reporter of Urdu Times along with the SP Sanjay Patil tried to reason with the crowd. He was overwhelmed and fell down and was trampled under feet and injured.

Of course, police advisory always asks the public to report unclaimed or abandoned things. The otherwise simple minded and forthright people did their job in reporting the police. It is strange that the police did not call the anti terrorist squad to search and defuse the device. To cover their shortcoming they allegedly gave out that it was the gas cylinder that had caused the explosion. The splinter injuries and hole marks belie this claim. The police should have known that in October 2001 a policeman had snatched a leaflet from a Muslim youth and then tore it up which had set off a communal riot in which 15 people had lost life. It seems the police lack tact or are not fully trained, if not really biased.

Thereafter the scene shifted to the circuit guesthouse where the home minister RR Patil and Chaggan Bhujbal,patron minister of the district, held forth on what they usually say. When the Congress leader Baba Siddiqui entered the meeting and took the official stance the anger of the Muslim representatives swayed them as they stopped him from speaking. To a pointed question the home minister paused but the district police chief whispered the answer into his ears that he should say that no one had died in police fire.

In the meantime the investigating agencies made a departure from the past, a welcome sign. They said that they would inquire into the blast from all angles, including probing the involvement of any Hindu extremist group. This was logical inference as the two blasts incidents of Malegaon of 2006 and 2008 had targeted exclusively Muslim worshippers coming out of mosques. This was much in line with the attacks on the mosques of Jalna, Purna, Parbhani, Jama masjid of Delhi and the Mecca masjid of Hyderabad. Their assertion was a healthy sign as Hindu extremists belonging to Sanatan Sanstha, Hindu Janjagran Samiti and Bajrang Dal had not only exhibited their bomb making but also had blown themselves up in Nanded and Kanpure as well as in other places. This was the case till October 1.

The next day the police and the agencies took a histrionic U turn as if they were puppets in the hands of the higher ups like the IB. As has become the fixed mode of operation into inquiry the police have now decided to go back in to the past. That is September 2008. Now they want to hunt the three who have simply disappeared. Their family members wonder in the manner of Suhan-Tauqeer’s whether they are even alive. One is the former SIMI president of Malegaon Munavar Ahmed and the other two are Riyaz Arsalan, and Ishtiaq Ahmed Mohammad. This militates against what the MLA of adjoining constituency of Dabhadi has asserted that the bomb blast of 2006 could not have been the work of local people.

But there is a catch here. Most of the people within the old town are emigrants from UP and the hunt for the “Azamgarh brigade” in the wake of the encounter killing of Atif and his friend in Jamia nager following Delhi blasts of September 13 has given the police newer pastures. Hence there is close surveillance of Jaffernager, Golden Nager and the Naya bazaar area where the three missing accused by the ATS charge sheet come from.
Despite denial from the police, reports indicate that the police had detained two youths from Chalisgaon and some from Malegaon. It is difficult to say whether the dramatic change in the direction of investigation came after the arrest of these or prior to it. If after it we will have to wait for infinity to get truth.